Jaffna'S War Wounds Refuse To Heal
This city makes Srinagar look like the venue for a teddy bears' picnic. It's bombed out. Block after block of roofless buildings, many of them flattened, are evidence that the Sri Lankan security forces' battle to take control in the winter of 1995-96 was a full scale war. Even today, more than 200,000 of the 750,000 of Jaffna district's 1983 inhabitants live elsewhere.
Now, the forces are in control of the city, with armoured personnel patrolling by day and complete curfew at night. The government is gradually rebuilding, setting up telecom lines and trying to restore power to the fans that have not turned in more than five years.
They have their work cut out. For the city seems to be in a quaint timewarp. Bright blue Morris minors and green Austin Martins whirr down the streets beside buses that look like World War II leftovers. The closest to the state-of-the-art supermarkets of Colombo is a cooperative store with shelves stacked with fish cans and vegetable oil bottles..
Just last month, the remaining two pockets in the district were cleared of the LTTE, says Maj Gen Balagalla, who commands the army's 5 Div in the Jaffna district. He claims there are not more than 100 LTTE cadres in the district.
The government's aim is to clear the 30-odd km stretch of the Kandy-Jaffna highway south of Elephant Pass, so that overland transportation can resume. Meanwhile, the army has reduced the number of checkpoints and given 60 per cent of its men and women crash courses in Tamil.
But, to win the hearts of the Tamil population, the forces and the government have much more than 30 km to go. The LTTE clearly holds sway there. Many of the Tamils with whom the army lined up closely chaperoned interviews for the foreign media on Saturday gave the impression of being caged.
"This is only half a life," said a young villager carrying fish on his bicycle on the road from Palaly, adding that anyone could move about freely even at night when the Tigers ran things. A workman said in broken English that 80 per cent of the people back the Tigers. Most of the locals seem sure that the Tigers will regroup and return. The Uthayan newspaper staff say most locals tune in to the Tamils' clandestine broadcasts.
"We cannot say a thing because they (the forces) just pick up people and they are never heard of again," says a little old lady at a roadside shop. She says the good furniture and cars from many homes were taken by the forces when most of the population fled the battle.
The recent allegation that there is a mass grave of about 300 corpses near the city is readily believed by most Tamils here. The government in Colombo has ordered that it be investigated by the CID, but that hasn't begun yet. And locals say the army does not allow anyone near the alleged site and could be removing the bodies.
Amid this traumatic setting, a few houses have been rebuilt and some families go about routine chores as if they don't notice the miles of rubble on either side. But the place is obviously in limbo, waiting for something to give, somewhere.